American Resistance Reconsidered

We Were Warned, America.

A couple years ago, I wrote a book called “American Resistance: The Inside Story of How the Deep State Saved the Nation.” It was drawn from over 100 interviews with members of the first Trump Administration. The objective was to reveal how even senior official close to Trump came to see him as a threat and to explore the manifold ways they worked to constrain his worst instincts.

People were the guardrails the last time Trump was president. But all those with whom I spoke, many of whom worked in regular daily contact with Trump, some of whom were members of his cabinet, warned that if Trump were reelected that he would seek to eliminate the kind of obstacles that they and others in the bureaucracy were able to erect to keep Trump from doing what was illegal or profoundly dangerous to the United States and our institutions.

The point of the book was to make it clear that many of them were deeply worried about that prospect and that only voters could ensure it did not come to pass. Many of those with whom I spoke later actively supported the campaign of Kamala Harris to become president. They did not agree with some of her policies. But they saw her election as an essential bulwark against the efforts of Trump and MAGA to weaken our democratic institutions, perhaps unrecognizably.

Not surprisingly, I have been thinking a lot about this book and the interviews I did while putting it together recently. My favorite part of doing the books I have written is the chance to interview remarkable, accomplished people. Given that my focus has primarily been the government and national security, many of those people have been real heroes to me. But even those with whom I have had big policy differences have, for the most part, struck me because of their real patriotism, their choice to devote their lives to the country rather than to the many ways almost all of them could have made much more money with many fewer hassles.

Some among them faced real threats to their lives and well-being as a result of that choice. Of those, some continue to face such threats. Indeed, in the wake of Trump’s victory, some have confided in me that the volume of the personal attacks and ominous messages that they have received has only increased.

A number of them have actively considered or are actively considering leaving the country. Most of them, recognizing that if Trump’s worst revenge fantasies are brought to bear the peril they face will rise, are nonetheless planning to stay. They are, as I mentioned already, real patriots. They know that while the years ahead may be difficult it has never been more essential that the champions of democracy and the rule of law stand up for what they—we—believe in.

Once again they all inspire me.

When I look back at the book and the interviews I did for it, I feel that I was unable to capture fully the passion many of them expressed in their warnings about what a second Trump term would look like. I tried. Some of it comes through. But these very serious people, many of whom have spent their careers grappling with some of the toughest questions a human can face, would convey profound concern, deep worries that were not just about the country but also about their families, their children and grandchildren and, by extension, you, your children and grandchildren.

I was wary at the time of appearing to melodramatic or polemical.

Now, a week after Trump’s reelection, such concerns of mine seem almost quaint. (And to be fair to me, I think I was quite forceful and detailed in warning about Trump’s plans to gut the bureaucracy and install himself as a strongman. Read the book. Judge for yourself.)

While some of Trump’s nominations for top jobs fall into the general realm of what you might expect in any administration—folks like Marco Rubio to State or Mike Waltz to the NSC, Susie Wiles to White House Chief of Staff or John Sauer to Solictor General—people you might disagree with but who you have to acknowledge were qualified to hold the jobs for which they had been nominated—some clearly were not so much nominations as they were tests.

Nominating a TV talk show host with a history of advocating for war criminals to be Secretary of Defense or a guy with no health experience and head full of conspiracy theories, bad science and a brain worm to be Secretary of Health and Human Services or a woman of dubious loyalties to be the top intel official in this country or a guy who is fresh off being investigated for sex trafficking to be Attorney General are more than just affronts to our sensibilities or judgments. They are both a statement of the intent to tear down our bureaucracy as we know it (and do so in the service of bad policies) and they are a public showdown with every Republican in the United States Senate. Trump is saying “Accept my nominations no matter who they are, no matter what your concerns, no matter what your oath to the Constitution may require you to do. I am the last word and the law in Washington now. I set the standards. Advise and consent is a thing of the past.”

While it is too early to tell whether the John Thune-led incoming Republican majority in the Senate will capitulate completely, it is already apparent that most of these completely inappropriate, dangerous nominees will, one way or another, end up in the jobs designated for them by Trump. Just as Stephen Miller will be Deputy White House Chief of Staff (a role for him of the type many in my book warned about) and just as Elon Musk will play some kind of amorphous First Oligarch role despite all the concerns many have about him and his myriad conflicts of interest.

Last week, when Trump won, I was concerned but felt it was important that we not borrow trouble, not anticipate and react to every possible threat he may pose. Now, a week later, some of the real threats are coming into focus. They should not be minimized. They must be seen for what they are (and why in this case, these appointments are something more than the wrong people with the wrong ideas in the wrong jobs).

And seeing them that way, I cannot help but recall the warnings of those who served atop the last Trump Administration and lament the fact that neither I nor they successfully managed to get their message through to America’s voters.